Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-07-01
..sT. PETERS H JyRGH.''.

Davenport, Iowa., Democrat writes
rom Rome: n
Are you coming to Rome? # you
come to see it all, to compass its pal
Spiritual and civil; to under
stand its antiquities, to know tho
length and breath OF Rome in time
and figures, come early, come to stay.
Come well braced for disapp ointment
s-for when you have spent your dear,
short life Of twenty, thirty. forty
years, you will know SO little. lack 80
much that you will shirk to look your
neighbor in the face.
\ | envy, quite, the man who has been
in Rome three days and tells you he
has seen 1t all! like him for his OBJ
durate. blissfnl ignorance; that state
OF hopeless mental vacancy that out
bids responsibility. and wish he would
write a book on Rome, for he could
only make q failure. as all have done
before. 49,. - Is s.
You come to Rome. First thing q
hotel. You take d: bit to eat, order a
vehicle. You are going QUITO do the
city-to take it in. Where will
you drive? Nine times out Of
ten the pilgrim says :ast. Peters
church," J
"a San Peatro" speaks OF your por-
ter to the whip. and off you go. Of
through close narrow streets, we'll
hemmed IN with tall, tawny, succeed
houses-the houses, are stores and
shops and dwellings, all combined in
one-you cross the Bridge OF Angels
IN a trance, you pass the castle An.
gelo in a daze, you squeeze in through
the Borgo in an anxious state, and
facing great Sa.nt Peters you are
crushed. You hunt your stock Of
words. They are misfts. You try to
tell your thoughts. They are too iu-
significant; you alight. stare at the
collonades, the great ambitious fount.
aims; the hierogyphic obelisk; then
turn and go inside. fyou are wise you'll
say no foolish thing, for you'll keep
your mouth shut. You cannot under
stand thing you see; the distances are
great and overcome you; the heights
are lofty-room in any corner to tuck
away your village church and never
miss the space it takes; the floor q
wide spread of colored marbles; the
piers and columns, inches, statues,
cherubs-everything SO out Of all pro-
portions. that you have ever seen,
that you cannot take it in or scarcely
find your tongue.
You will join the crowd, maybe, and
you will 60 to the great bronze canopy
and look upon the many lighted lamps;
gaze up above the clouds and find the
heavens very high and overweight
with rows OF saints-tier ON tier, with
Christ and Mary where the sun should
De. You hear church music some
where round-intoned service some
where here-but not q congregation in
sight-the great floor space is free of
crowds, though some hundreds Of eo-
pie wander about just as you do; you
wonder where the singing is, and go to
find it-go to hunt among the piers,
about the aisles and chapels-fnd it
at last way off one side-mere chapel
service-scarcely any people there.
But look you-look about-that
little chapel you see here;s larger than
any church, perhaps, you have ever
worshipped in; its dome mounts up
two hundred feet OF more; its floor is
costly marble work; it's alter golden
bronze and precious stones; it's pic
lures masters works. Small! Yes;
but put all the people into it that you
find in your average church at home,
and they will yet leave room for quite
" IT. II
Stay here weeks and come here for an
hour each day. and it will grow-take
form and shape, and you will get &C.
customed. 1t hardly seems the work
of man; morelike vast majestic cave
arranged by supernatural hands
cathedral of the gods. The work OF
man could be described so man can
understandable passes all descrip-
tion-passeth understanding. You
may pace it off-go around it's outer
wall, and those Of its annexes, and adj
joined rooms of the Vatican, and the
walk is longer than that which COM
passes the walls Of the city of Jerusa.
lem! You trudge up to the top and
walk about the streets of houses there
the great paved roof looks like a vii.
lage-street and public square-homes
for the workingmen, a liberia! force to
keep things in repair. The lofty chap
81 domes that spring up through the
roof are so many small temples
kiosks. The grand old central dome
that mounts up there beyond this IT,
dy village, is the August cathedral
round, as was cathedral shapein later
pagan-early Christian times. You
wander here at leisure, look up along
the eighteen feet back of the Saviour
and the saints that from your roof
village wall look down into the sixty
acre open square that fronts the great
Saint Peters; stray round the
sturdy parapets. climb on far
Their up and up towards the SUM-.
From down below you saw little
ball-an ornament on the spire-just
below the top. It's bigger than your
head, and coming nearer, it grows
bigger and bigger yet; and when you
get up to it, it's big enough to let you
in-you and your wife and children
uncles, aunts, and visitors. fall are
good sized, sixteen can get in and
more OF big and little.
From the lantern railing just below
you may sit and see the world! Men,
below, are mites, and palaces are
children's playhouse toys? From
here you look straight down into the
Tiber-down into streets and public
squares of Rome as you look upon q
map-as you look from balloon:
You may count from here
the other Roman churches-one
hundred, two, three three hundred
and sixty-fve-alI in full blast-the1r
doors stand open every day. Full
many: OF these are costly miracles OF
marble, fresco, bronze and painted
stones. and Gid and clint II iawelru